The disintegration of Austria-Hungary and the rise of the successor states
after the First World War brought about not only radical changes on the
map of Europe and in the political alignment of the vast European region,
but also the break-up of an extensive economic area which had been formed
in central and south-eastern Europe over centuries of development of that
part of the continent. After the fall of the Habsburg monarchy, Czechoslovakia inherited a territory with a considerable industrial and export
potential, with a completely structured industry, relatively intensive
agricultural production, a satisfactory infrastructure, and a large skilled
labour force. From various sources, which are, however, far from consistent, it can be estimated that Czechoslovakia inherited about 60 per cent
of the manufacturing industry of Austria-Hungary, approximately twothirds of this from the Cisleithan regions and nearly one-fifth from the
manufacturing industry of Hungary. The Czechoslovak share of the
territory and the population of the old monarchy equalled only 21 per cent
and 25 per cent respectively.

Interwar developments did not bear out the sceptical prognoses of
Austrian, Hungarian and West European politicians and economists, whose
forecasts were based on the assumption that the disintegration of AustriaHungary into small states would lead to an economic collapse of these
successor countries. Reality corrected these gloomy prognoses: despite the
postwar feelings of hopelessness, even the greatly reduced territories of
Austria and Hungary proved economically viable. For the neighbours of
these two countries the breakdown of the clumsy and conservative system
of a multinational monarchy, which involved pumping funds to Vienna and
Budapest, and which was linked with the privileges of the Austro-German

Print this page

While we understand printed pages are helpful to our users, this limitation is necessary
to help protect our publishers' copyrighted material and prevent its unlawful distribution.
We are sorry for any inconvenience.